I Will Remember You
by CameoAmalthea
Summary: Co-authored by ScatterSunshine50. Sora set out to end everyone's suffering, freeing the Hearts within his own and waking Ventus. But some hurt may be too deep to heal, and now Ventus bares the weight of all that happened so long ago, and painful memories of a final summer vacation and the 358 days that came before that, when his heart took a new form and he took a new name: Roxas.


Roxas awoke with a jolt and found himself in a strange white room. Strange, but somehow familiar - all these white walls and high ceilings. Then came a sharp painful, clenching feeling in his chest. With a low grunt he managed to sit up, rubbing his eyes and waiting for his sight to refocus as the world spun unsteadily around him. He felt as if his body was restarting and needed time to reboot. When his eyes had adjusted, he took a look around him, puzzled by what he saw.

He was sitting on a throne, and in front of him...

...Sora?

This place with its bright white walls reminded him of the place he had rejoined with Sora, yet it was different somehow. But why was he here? And what exactly was this place?

A sharp pain wracked Roxas's body as he fell forward off the throne and onto the floor, catching himself on his hands. He sat back on his knees and held his hands to his head as memories suddenly burst painfully through his mind like hot, explosive fireworks. He bit his lip hard and pressed his hands hard on his head, wanting desperately to scream but holding it down until the pain finally began to ebb away. When he could finally think again, there were tears burning in his eyes, and something in his chest began to hurt in place of the pain in his head.

"What…,"he whispered without realizing he had spoken out loud. The memories that had suddenly come back disoriented him, making him dizzy. Images of a raven – haired girl with eyes that resembled Namine's, he and Axel, sitting on the roof of the station tower…

"Wh….Why did I…" he started, then stopped as he suddenly looked down at his chest in realization. It was hurting. His heart was hurting.

_He had a heart._

He'd always had a heart. He knew that now.

The pain was undeniably there – the pain he felt for leaving Axel, the pain he felt when he watched the raven-haired girl die in front of him, the pain he felt for being made to believe he still had friends when they were only illusions – all the pain he had felt was suddenly tangible and _real_. He was _real_.

"Ven?" A blue-haired woman knelt beside him, cradling him. The name was unfamiliar to him at first, but he looked up regardless.

"Aqua?" he met her blue eyes. The name fell off his lips before he knew what he was saying. He remembered her, though he didn't know how. He closed his eyes again. It was like waking from a dream so vivid you forget where you are...except, it wasn't a dream. The last year had been real. Roxas. That's what they'd called him.

What happened? Vanitas. Had Vanitas taken his heart?

"You're all right Ven," the woman said, her voice was as soothing as any mother's chasing away nightmares with a few words.

"What happened?" he asked. He got to his feet, leaning on her for support and finding somehow, he was taller than her. He looked down at himself. His pants were up his knees, and his shirt showed his midriff.

"You were asleep," said Sora. "For uh...thirteen years. Don't feel bad, it happens. Your heart came to me, when I was a kid. I've kept it safe for you, until you were ready to wake up." Sora grinned at him. "And don't worry about the clothes, I know these three fairies who can probably help you out."

Despite himself Roxas found himself laughing uneasily with him. Or was he Ventus? His name was Ventus, but he'd been Roxas too. "I thought I was you," he told Sora, "but I guess you were right. We really aren't the same."

"Roxas..." said Sora.

"Huh?" asked Aqua, looking at Sora, "Who's Roxas?"

"Well," explained Sora, "When I was keeping Ven's heart safe, there was a time I lost my heart. In order to set Kairi's heart free, I set all the hearts in me free, including Ven's. Yen Sid said Nobody's were formed from Memories with a heart. Roxas here must have formed from a Heart without Memories – Ven's heart. So you were never really _me_, Roxas, you were Ven. And now you're back - wait 'til we tell Lea!"

"Who?" asked Ventus, though the name sounded kind of familiar. Hadn't he met someone with that name once? _I'm Lea, get it memorized._

It couldn't be.

But…Axel was gone. He'd died. Roxas had watched him die while trapped in Sora's body. Lea couldn't be the same person…

"Who am I exactly then?"he said, closing his eyes as he held his head to stifle the pain.

"Ventus,"Aqua said with a small smile, touching his shoulder, "You're Ventus. You're my friend."

"With Roxas's heart and memories,"Sora added.

He wanted to scream. Everything DiZ had said to him about not being real, not being a thing that was supposed to exist - none of it was true. He'd always had a heart. No one had tried to help him or figure out what had really happened, though.

He looked at Aqua. "Why did you leave me here? Why didn't find my heart sooner!? Where have you _been_!?"

"Ven…"

"I'm sorry,"he said, abruptly standing, "This is too much to take in. I need some time alone."

He hurried past her, past them both. He just wanted to leave. Except, he didn't know the way. Behind he heard Aqua sigh, then saw a flash of light as a spell poured over the place. It was blinding, and when Roxas could see again, the room had changed. He wasn't in a white room; he was in the Land of Departure. Home.

Or it had been home…

But that had been a long time ago. He'd been another person then. That home was gone. Roxas ran and didn't stop until he was outside under the open sky. He summoned his keyblade, and prepared to fly. He couldn't stay here. He wanted to be somewhere else.

Somewhere more familiar, or at least, familiar to the person he'd been most recently.

X

Flying had given him time to think and recollect the events of both his pasts. He and Vanitas had fused. His heart had gone to sleep. At some point in his sleep, his existence had continued in the form of Roxas. When he and Vanitas fused, his heart became whole again. Before he couldn't feel like others did; he was a half heart; he only had the bright side of emotions. He could be unhappy, but all those things had been so weak compared to the joy and love he felt. That's why as Roxas he felt anger, despair, and all these other things more keenly than ever. His heart had been restored, light and dark, a complete heart instead of one broken in two, where he was just light, and there were no nuanced feelings - just the good or unhappy. He inwardly wondered how it had been for Vanitas, if his whole existence was just negative feelings, if he felt negativity as strongly as Ventus felt everything he did now. He could almost understand how he could have done what he did to him now.

Vanitas, being half a heart, probably couldn't feel love or joy. Roxas felt sorry for him now. It wasn't his fault he'd been created. It was Xehanort's fault - everything was Xehanort's fault. And where was Terra now? Was Terra was gone or had he just forgotten himself?

Roxas knew he'd have to go back. Find Aqua, and join whatever fight was coming, but first...he just needed room to breathe. He needed to time to figure things out, to connect to who he'd been as Ventus, the boy with half a heart, to whom he'd become as Roxas, the boy with no memories and just a heart to guide him. A heart that ended up full of anger and despair.

Roxas landed outside of town, near the mansion. The gate wasn't locked now. So first things first, find some clothes that fit, if there was anything inside. He could tear the pants into cut off shorts. It was warm out anyway, probably summer.

X

The streets and buildings of Twilight Town loomed into sight as he made his way through the hole in the wall, the colors of the always-present sunset bursting with the feeling that he was finally home_._

He didn't wait to catch his breath, unwilling to let even the euphoria of memory distract him. Twilight Hill was the same as he remembered. The only thing different was that the familiar faces he passed all stopped to stare as he ran by, the same peculiar looks on all their faces, as if they had just seen someone they recognized but couldn't quite put their finger on.

Roxas's suspicions about the time of year were confirmed when he overheard some of them talking.

"I can't believe it's really our last summer together," said Olette. "Next year's university. Can you believe it?"

"I know," said Hayner, "It used to feel like we'd be kids forever and starting high school was a big deal- Oh, are you lost?" He'd noticed Roxas staring at them.

"Just looking for the train station," he said. They were quick to point him in the right direction. Roxas thought about what they'd said, growing up so fast. He could understand that for sure. He'd been fifteen, and now he was what? In his twenties? The same age as Axel anyway, if Axel really was Lea.

Roxas' chest heaved with every breath by the time he reached the top of the hill, his muscles burning with every step. The elevation finally started to level off as he neared the top of Station Heights, panting as he stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He felt his fingers tingle in anticipation, though he couldn't quite understand why, or what his heart yearned so badly to see. He sucked in a breath and bravely turned the corner, treading slowly into the main plaza where his breath caught in his throat at what was in front of him.

A young girl with raven hair turned slowly to face him, blue eyes glassy with moisture and hands held protectively over her chest, as if she were trying to shield her newly acquired heart from the darkness of the world. For a moment the two simply stood where they were, unable to move or think or even humor the possibility that what they were seeing was real.

"Roxas…" The girl was the first to break the silence, eyes widening in incredulation as she stared at him. Roxas opened his mouth to speak then closed it again, speechless. Every step he had taken here had been a trickle of memory set back into its proper place, and yet for all that he had regained, he still couldn't remember the most important piece.

His feet began moving of their own accord, pulling them toward her until he was running, running with reckless abandon. He couldn't put a finger on what it was that was drawing him to this person with such force, but he knew by the way his heart leapt out of his chest that she was the cause for this wonderful feeling spreading like fire through his entire body.

The girl opened her arms to receive his embrace, and in that moment the realization came crashing down on Roxas – the last piece of memory set into place the moment they had made contact, and he knew exactly whom this was.

"Xion…,"he breathed her name into her cloak, feeling his eyes and heart swell with the emotion of an entire year's worth of memory with this person – with this person who he had somehow forgotten until this moment. Xion laughed quietly, the sound muffled in his shoulder, tears slowly wetting the place where her cheek rested

"Roxas, I can't believe it,"Xion said, gently pulling away, smiling brightly as she looked at him, "I can feel your heartbeat." Perhaps it was the culmination of everything Roxas had been through, or perhaps he just wanted to revel in the fact that he could feel strongly and tangibly enough to cry, but Roxas felt tears burn behind his eyes when she said this.

"Yours too,"he managed to get out, laughing even as the first of the tears began to fall. They couldn't help but laugh through each other's tears - their own manifestations of feeling and emotion only further validating their existences. They had both lived for so long believing they were unfit to exist in the world because they could not feel - and yet here they were, reveling in the fact that they could cry out of sheer happiness without having to wonder how it was possible, or wonder if something was wrong with them. At last, they were alive.

"…Roxas?" A voice pulled them away from each other toward the train station entrance, where a tall young man with fiery red hair stood staring disbelievingly at them. Roxas could feel his heart leap in his chest.

"Axel?" They moved forward at the same time and collided in an embrace, Lea affectionately ruffling Roxas's hair.

"Sora said you ran off and I thought I might find you here, so I"- he stopped talking when he suddenly noticed Xion standing there.

"…Axel?"she asked slowly, her voice small and unsure. Lea turned at the sound of his old name and froze.

"Who are…,"but then he stopped as realization hit him. "Xion?" She smiled with a tearful nod and rushed over, throwing her arms around him as Roxas smiled.

"You both remember me,"she said, looking happily at them both. Lea gave Xion one final squeeze before reaching over to Roxas to hold him close to them too.

"I love you guys,"said Roxas.

"Roxas...I don't know what to say. I've finally found you. I thought I'd never see you again, after you went back to Sora and I went back to who I was before...honestly I didn't expect to be alive again. And now things are better than I could ever imagined. I love you, too, Roxas. Now I have the heart to say it. I love you. I love you both."

They hugged each other in agreement, until Lea pulled away and nodded toward the clock tower.

"Come on. There's a place I think we're all dying to go to."

X

They sat together on the clock tower eating sea-salt ice cream, unsure what else to do or even where they'd go once the sun set. He shouldn't have run off like that, Roxas knew now. The peace he felt now made his panic and confusion back then seem silly and inconsequential. Aqua was probably hurt and worried about him. He would return soon; however, he wasn't going to let Aqua keep him from reuniting with another best friend when he knew she was safe back in the Land of Departure.

"I still can't believe you guys are here,"Roxas said, grinning at his friends, "I thought you were dead."

"Hey, you can't get rid of me that easily,"Axel teased him, knocking him on the head with the butt end of his popsicle stick, "Besides, you're one to talk."

"I know,"Roxas said with a laugh, "I'm just really glad you guys are here, Xion…Axel." Axel took a large bite out of his ice cream before speaking.

"Call me Lea, 'kay guys?" Roxas and Xion glanced over at him and smiled, taking a bite out of their own ice cream. His memories as Roxas were real and valid, and he didn't need the name to make his own memories. He was, after all, no longer just "Sora with an 'X'." He was his own person.

"Only if you guys call me Ventus,"he answered. Lea finished his popsicle stick and held it between his teeth, tapping the side of his head as he grinned at his friend.

"I've got it memorized. How about you, Xion?"

"Sure, but I think I'll stick with my name for now." They all laughed at this.

Twilight Town was quiet as the sun dipped lower under the rooftops, casting an orange glow over the sky. The wind blew gently as Ventus finished the last of his ice cream, smiling contently at the slowly darkening sky.

"Want to go to the beach?"

"Huh?"

"The beach. We never got to go, remember? We could go now, if you want."

"Really?"Xion asked.

"Sure. I know an island."

"I know it too. I've seen it in his heart," Ventus said, "I guess I've been there a few times too, just as someone else." He took a bite of his ice cream.

"Well then,"Lea said, standing and holding out a hand to help his friends up, "Let's go see it for real this time. All three of us. As our real selves." Roxas and Xion exchanged glances and smiled at their friend.

"I'd like that."


End file.
